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ped coil or insulated wire, usually containing a core of soft iron which becomes magnetic when the wire is traversed by an electrical current. Bobbin and fly frame, a roving machine. -- Bobbin lace, lace made on a pillow with bobbins; pillow lace.

A dagger. [Obs.] When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin. Shak.

To pass from a liquid to an aëriform state or vapor when heated; as, the water boils away.

masses composed of radiating fibers, first discovered near Bologna. It is phosphorescent when calcined. -- Bologna vial, a vial of unannealed glass which will fly into pieces when its surface is scratched by a hard body, as by dropping into it a fragment of flint; whereas a bullet may be dropped into it without injur…

the perforated plate in a punching machine on which anything rests when being punched.

To utter precipitately; to blurt or throw out. I hate when Vice can bolt her arguments. Milton.

ry. Bombardier beetle (Zoöl.), a kind of beetle (Brachinus crepitans), so called because, when disturbed, it makes an explosive discharge of a pungent and acrid vapor from its anal glands. The name is applied to other related species, as the B. displosor, which can produce ten or twelve explosions successively. The com…

t of personal liberty by compulsion; involuntary servitude; slavery; captivity. The King, when he designed you for my guard, Resolved he would not make my bondage hard. Dryden.

es in length, from two to three inches wide, and half or three quarters of an inch thick. When thrown from the hand with a quick rotary motion, it describes very remarkable curves, according to the shape of the instrument and the manner of throwing it, often moving nearly horizontally a long distance, then curving upwa…

ye to boot. Shak. A man's heaviness is refreshed long before he comes to drunkenness, for when he arrives thither he hath but changed his heaviness, and taken a crime to boot. Jer. Taylor.

n the leg of a boot, consisting of two pieces, together shaped like a leg, between which, when put into the boot, a wedge is driven. The pretty boots trimly stretched on boottrees. Thackeray.

Less properly, a very high and rapid tidal flow, when not so abrupt, such as occurs at the Bay of Fundy and in the British Channel.

c element occurring abundantly in borax. It is reduced with difficulty to the free state, when it can be obtained in several different forms; viz., as a substance of a deep olive color, in a semimetallic form, and in colorless quadratic crystals similar to the diamond in hardness and other properties. It occurs in natu…

e next higher denomination in order to add it to the next lower; -- a term of subtraction when the figure of the subtrahend is larger than the corresponding one of the minuend.

The breast of a human being; the part, between the arms, to which anything is pressed when embraced by them. You must prepare your bosom for his knife. Shak.

To reach or impinge against the bottom, so as to impede free action, as when the point of a cog strikes the bottom of a space between two other cogs, or a piston the end of a cylinder.

A young hawk, when it begins to leave the nest. [Obs.]

play; a ball of hard wood having one side heavier than the other, so as to give it a bias when rolled.

inate ropes, called bridles, and used to keep the weather edge of the sail tight forward, when the ship is closehauled. Bowline bridles, the ropes by which the bowline is fastened to the leech of the sail. -- Bowline knot. See Illust. under Knot. -- On a bowline, close-hauled or sailing close to the wind; -- said of…

The state of being braced or tight; tension. The laxness of the tympanum, when it has lost its brace or tension. Holder.